


The Essential Atlantis Reading List

by ArwenLune



Series: Rock Happy 'verse [23]
Category: Generation Kill, Stargate - All Series, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Book Review, Cover Art, Declassification, Digital Art, Epistolary, Fanart, Gen, Reviews of imaginary books written by Atlantis personnel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 15:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2393666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/ArwenLune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since the declassification of the Stargate Program, there have been several books published about its most unique mission: Atlantis. While <i>On Gate Travel</i>, by Dr Rodney KcKay, is by some considered the ultimate book on the Stargate Program (at over 600 pages it is certainly long enough) there is far more to Atlantis than could possibly be said in one book by one person. We would like to bring the following books to your attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. S.R.E. - Major L. Brittner

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to ask people on tumblr 'if your character wrote a memoir, what would its title be?' and before I knew it I was off and running.

 

  
  
**S.R.E. – Major L. Brittner.**  
412 pages.  
  
The most intimidating book on the list, this thick tome analyses 50 Search, Rescue  & Extraction missions executed by Atlantis Recon 4.  
  
Written during a period of medical leave, _S.R.E._ was originally a document intended for the training of current and future Stargate mission personnel. When the Stargate Program and the Atlantis Expedition were declassified, it was given a more extensive glossary, poured into book form and published, but it makes no pretense at entertainment.

For those willing to tackle its dry going, there is much to be learned about the military’s formerly most secret expedition. Brittner methodically deconstructs SRE missions executed under her command; information acquisition, planning, strategy and execution of the rescue, after-action report including injuries and casualties, and a far-hindsight evaluation written at the time of compilation. She details soberly what went right, what went wrong, and which lessons can be learned from each mission. We have no doubt that some details were redacted, but it is still an impressively frank document.  
  
For the military personnel it was originally intended for – the foreword details it is still required reading to be qualified for off-world missions – this is a book to help prepare for the perils of stepping through the Stargate. For civilians such as us, it is mostly a highly detailed, sobering testament to the literally _unimaginable_ danger faced by the people who travel among the stars.  
  
Our regret about _S.R.E._ is about what it _didn’t_ contain. We wish Major Brittner had spent a few more words on the personal side of her role in the missions. As the only female Combat Rescue Officer in the US military – her position was long contested, and for years technically not legal on Earth. It is said that her position, and those of a handful of other female expedition members, were a factor both in the slow declassification of the Atlantis expedition, and the opening of combat positions to women on Earth. We would be most interested in an account of the blazing of that particular trail.

 

 

 


	2. This Is Not Our First Goat Rodeo - Lt. Colonel Darren Avery

__

_This Is Not Our First Goat Rodeo_ , by Lt. Colonel Darren Avery.  
202 pages  
 _New York Times_ bestseller 7 weeks in a row.

 _This Is Not Our First Goat Rodeo_ is the book about Atlantis we had subconsciously been craving, and given its bestseller status, we were not the only one. British SAS-trained Avery writes a lively and sharp account of his team on recon missions. If Brittner’s _S.R.E._ details the danger and tragedy that can be found when stepping through the Stargate, Avery’s book flips the coin and shows the mundane, the absurd, the hilarious and the personal. Anecdotes range from cultural exchanges involving the Macarena and the Moonwalk to an uproarious account of an interteam wedding ceremony and a ‘wedding night’ involving a game of Scrabble.

One of the great joys of _This Is Not Our First Goat Rodeo_ is that Avery is genre-savvy. Clearly a fan of the science fiction genre, he at times references Star Trek, Firefly, Dr Who, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Through a narration which makes no effort to be blase about danger or wonder, we get an inkling of what it might be like stepping through the Gate.

Don’t forget to read the glossary, which is a treasure throve of terms such as _FUBAPS_ (F*ed Up Beyond All Previous Standards), _Anthropofluffical_ and _Hysbelief_

There is remarkably little overlap between two books about the same team, though that is perhaps to be expected since Brittner writes about the emergency missions and Avery largely leaves those untold. However, some of the anecdotes strongly suggest Brittner’s input in _This Is Not Our First Goat Rodeo,_ and it gives us joy to imagine the two team members sharing a table while working on their manuscripts, cribbing off each other’s mission notes.


	3. Gods and Monsters - 16 years of humanity among the stars, by Dr Michel Fournier

G _ods and Monsters - 16 years of humanity among the stars_ – Dr Michèl Fournier.  
270 pages

French national Dr. Michèl Fournier holds doctorates in Archaeology and Anthropology. Brought into the Stargate Program at the end of its first year, he spent six years on a SGC gate team travelling the Milkyway galaxy. When the Atlantis Expedition was first mounted, he was a member. Those first 96 people who stepped through the Stargate with no guarantee of what they would find or if they would ever be able to return to Earth, are often referred as the ‘first wave’. He was a member of Atlantis Recon 4 for nearly four years – making him a longterm team member of Avery and Brittner, who do sometimes feature in his tales. When he was forced to retire from offworld missions because of an injury, he returned to his position as on-base researcher.

If anybody is qualified to muse philosophically about humans travelling among the stars, it is Fournier, and he does so in a wonderfully lyrical, accessible way that leaves more questions than it answers.

One might assume that the Gods and Monsters of the title refers to the Goa’uld, the parasitic beings which presented itself as gods throughout the Milkyway, and the Wraith – a sort of nightmarish energy-vampire race which fed on humans throughout the Pegasus galaxy. However, it quickly becomes clear that in his tales about the people he encountered on strange planets, the lines are not so clearly drawn. Similarly, Fournier’s humanity is not limited to people from Earth. (Endearingly, he refers to us as _Tau’ri_ , a word from the Goa’uld language which is spoken by most of the humans in the Milkyway galaxy)

Between the thousands of inhabited worlds the Stargate Program has visited since its inception, lay tales of heartbreaking beauty and unimaginable pain. Fournier tells about recording the childhood memories of the last survivor of an entire planet, about a civilisation that would have died rather than spread a terrifyingly aggressive weed to other planets.

He also speaks of a devastating war sparked by the visit of a gate team, of simple misunderstandings devolving into hostilities with casualties. Of the struggle to balance safety with diplomacy and exploration. Of the need to be ever humble.

As Tau’ri, he says, our understanding of our place in the universe is young, our conduct sometimes childlike in its rashness. We are not special; we are also not _alone_. We are one people among millions, and humanity spans its broad wings over all of us. As for Gods and Monsters…. Between the Goa’uld and the Wraith, he seems to ask the reader, where does humanity fall?

 _Gods and Monsters ,_ Dr Daniel Jackson, the Stargate Program’s most famous civilian, writes in the foreword _, is a 270 page long love letter to humanity._

We quite agree. A wonderful read.


	4. GRUNTS IN SPACE - The Atlantis Expedition through the eyes of its Marines - Espera & Colbert

**GRUNTS IN SPACE – GySgt T. Espera & GySgt B. Colbert**  
167 pages

If you thought the first three books on this list covered all possible angles of the Atlantis mission, you would be missing out on this delightful look through the eyes of two experienced Marine Sergeants.

Recruited from the Marine Corps Force Recon, Espera and Colbert deployed to Atlantis to serve on AR7 and 4, respectively. Their tale starts with being told about _space vampires_ , and continues into the struggle of maintaining Force Recon appropriate ‘frostiness’ in the face of utterly bizarre circumstances. It’s not easy coming into the Atlantis expedition in its fourth year, they’re just sayin’.

Espera and Colbert bring tales of the military side of Atlantis – life in the Anthill (its military headquarters), training scenarios across multiple planets, 101 games to play in an overcrowded jumper (‘the spaceship equivalent of a minivan’) and the most enjoyable planets to be sent to for a help-with-the-harvest mission.

They include excerpts from a long-running Atlantis internal document titled [_Sh*t My CO Says_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/356774), which shines some wonderful light on team dynamics. Our favourite of AR4:

> "Captain, could you get me the thingy from the…" [trails off, vague handwave] "Jumper?"  
> "The pointy thing?"  
> "Yeah, that one." [after a moment of thought] "We’re really approaching new levels of um…. thing, here. Eloquence. Communication."  
> [Lt. Brittner and Capt Avery after 36 hours without sleep]

Between those lighthearted tales they also write about the satisfaction of having a clear, recognisable enemy. Having come out of the morally muddy waters of Iraq, it isn’t hard to understand why the Marines might prefer the clarity of facing _space vampires_ even if meeting them up close (this, too, is described in detail) is spine-chillingly terrifying.

Without ever saying it in so many words, Espera and Colbert show us a world that’s underlaid with solid command. The officers in charge of them, Air Force and Marine Corps both, evidently value the grunts and inspire loyalty. _Grunts like to complain_ , they admit, but there’s not a bad word said about Colonel Sheppard (now retired) or his successor, Colonel Lorne. More than that, the fact that Espera and Colbert have encouraged several colleagues from their Force Recon days to sign up too speaks volumes about their opinion of Atlantis.

If lives are to be risked it will be these men on the front line, but they trust that the cause is worthy, they will be used to their strengths, and that they will not be spent needlessly.

If GRUNTS IN SPACE has a fault, it is perhaps that it isn’t sure what it wants to be. Seemingly a fun romp about the ground-floor view of Atlantis, it occasionally veers into sharp, intelligent diatribes about colonalisation, racism and how things really aren’t all that different when they happen in space. We enjoyed the insights into the expedition and the writer ( _The ranty bits are Espera_ , Colbert writes in the foreword) but the tale does lose some of its momentum at these points.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note for confused Generation Kill fans: if you’d like to read a really long crossover about Brad Colbert (and some of the other GK guys) going to Atlantis, check out [Rock Happy](http://archiveofourown.org/series/16566). This book review is a far-future glimpse of that verse.


	5. ATLANTIS - Dr Marisol Valiente, Dr Major Laura Cadman

_ATLANTIS_ – Dr Marisol Valiente and Dr Major Laura Cadman  
610 pages

How did Atlantis go from 96 people hanging on to survival by their fingernails to a thriving floating city of 1400 people? That is the question Drs Valiente (Anthropology/sociology, Dr Fournier's successor on AR4) and Cadman (PhD in Chemistry, Atlantis Explosives Expert, part-time member of AR4) set out to answer in this book. They did not do this alone, the intro explains; among the people who leant their support and knowledge to the book are Colonels Sheppard (Retired), Lorne and Carter, Pegasus natives Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex and Halling, Doctors Ingadottir, Hayashi and Fournier, as well as military members Lee Brittner, Darren Avery, Brad Colbert, Rohaan Patel, Nate Fick, Henry Stackhouse, Tony Espera and Tim Bryan.

Reading the list of contributors, and especially the presence of the notoriously media averse Colonel Sheppard among those names, suggests that this book is the Atlantis community, getting the definitive word about Atlantis on paper before outsiders can get the illusion that they might be able to do so. It's hard to imagine how anybody could write a better, more widely supported book about the expedition or the city. 

If the focus of the other books on this reading list is to follow the people going through the Stargate on missions, _ATLANTIS_ stays in the city itself, and tells the tale of the community the Atlantis Expedition was and has become. To do this the writers have conducted several dozen interviews with both former and current members. There are also a large number of colour photos included.

While Gate missions are undeniably dangerous, it would be blatantly incorrect to say that remaining expedition members stayed safely in the city. This becomes clear in the first section, which mixes the wonder of discovering the city with the slowly mounting horror at just what situation the expedition had found itself in with no way of retreat. If the Wraith (thanks to GRUNTS IN SPACE we cannot help think of them as _space vampires_ ) were not enough, the city itself hid a number of dangers that could not be detected until somebody, sometimes literally, tripped over them.

The authors make no attempt to hide what must have been an unrelenting mix of claustrophobia and despair. In an interview, Dr Fournier says, "We were all of us fearful that we would simply die or get picked off one by one, and we were the most fearful of being the last one left."

To relieve the pressure of this first chapter somewhat, the authors reproduce exerpts of notices and emails. _We are out of coffee. The coffee is gone. Please stop asking!_ A slighly desperate sounding note printed on doubly-reused paper is stuck on an ops/supply notice board. It's surrounded by marker-drawn tears and sad faces. _You will not attempt to convince Pegasus allies that Star Trek is a documentary_ , reads an email from Dr Weir, in something that sounds suspiciously like the [Atlantis equivalent of Skippy's List](http://archiveofourown.org/works/284033). _You may not play football, rugby or any other ballgame in the Gate room, no matter how convenient a goal the Gate itself makes_ , we encounter further on.

  
After setting the scene of the first year, _ATLANTIS_ explores the roots of the cultural mainstays still present in the community today.

Making – ingenuity, recycling, inventing and craft – grew from the extremely limited resources the expedition set out with. Ops/tech personnel is responsible for 'Keeping the heads flushing, the lights working, and the city afloat.' (That last literally, there have been times when hull-repair and pumping was necessary). An interview with the first wave members who still work there reveals that they have several rooms full of hand tools and equipment, spinning wheels, looms, sewing machines, stockpiled glass jars, a small forge, and other apocalypse ready items. "We kept note of all the things we were desperate for when we were cut off from Earth, and the moment we could, we started requisitioning and stockpiling. In case we ever get cut off again," says Dutch-born Ms van Ijsselmuiden, and nobody seems to find that a remarkable precaution.

Learning: In current times, this mainly means that there is a lot of knowledge present among the scientists and military personnel, and people are encouraged to share. At any one time one can learn approximately 10 languages, the basics of how to spin yarn and knit your own socks, how to paint, follow marksmanship training, learn how to forage and navigate in unknown environments, and any number of other skills. Mostly regarded as recreational these days, its roots are in the time when people and skillsets were finite, and every death deprived the expedition of vital knowledge and skills. The necessity of spreading knowledge is a lesson the expedition learned hard, and learned well.

An email from Dr Elizabeth Weir, sent in the first year, reads:

> _...if you are the only person who can do your job,_ **you need to start remedying that immediately** _. Document your work - share your findings, put it on the intranet - train at least one other person to handle those specific tasks. I know it's flattering to feel irreplaceable, but if the sh*t hits the fan we need people with diverse skill sets. […] Specialisation is for insects._

Trade. Vulnerable as the expedition was in its early years, it needed to form relationships with the peoples surrounding it to get access to food and intel. Over the years, a vast network of allies, friends and trade relationships developed. Even now the city is far more connected in the Pegasus galaxy that one would expect of a place that could, if desired, be fully supplied by Earth. Yet a significant number of missions concern trade – of goods or services, such as Marine manpower – and the 'alien' food the mess hall serves is far more popular than the 'reconstituted everything' the US military supplies Atlantis with.

With these three baselines established, _ATLANTIS_ explores how military personnel interact with civilians, the perpetual Hard Science vs Soft Science divide, the international aspects of the community (there is a wonderful account of a Eurovision Song Contest party), the cultural influence of the Athosian allies, and countless other subjects.

Along the way, the book memorialises the people who called Atlantis home, but it does so via anecdotes, not eulogies. The most space is given to Dr Elizabeth Weir, the original expedition leader and somebody whose loss is clearly still felt, but there are more tales of the men and women, civilians and military, who gave their lives along the way. There's no list, but the photos of the memorial wall in Atlantis are profound.

There are chapters on cooking with alien food, and what Atlanteans do for fun – the Atlantis Society For The Preservation Of Sanity, a kind of crowd-sourced entertainment, is a stroke of sheer genuis. A chapter on language reveals that, like any isolated community, the city has developed its own vernacular, with terms and expressions from all over Earth as well as from various planets in the Pegasus galaxy.

Then just when it all starts to sound like a holiday camp which happens to be in another galaxy, the next chapter is called _Pack Up Your Things And Go. It_ reminds us that the entire city is a spaceship, and has been relocated to different planets a number of times now. The chapter is about the planning, process and aftermath of a relocation, from getting used to a new climate to the practical difficulties of learning to cope with 32-hour days.

Endearingly, the city is referred to as 'she' throughout this book, and there is a section on the tendency of Atlanteans to think of the city as an entity. There is an ongoing debate on if Atlantis has programming which enables it to respond to ATA gene carriers in a way humans anthropomorphise, or if there is a degree of consciousness there.

 _ATLANTIS_ is liberally seeded with art, as art supplies were popular to bring along as personal item. The way the images have been woven into the book tells a story all in and of itself. In the early chapters there are mainly line drawings and charcoal sketches, quick attempts to catch both the beauty and the oppressive nature of the city. As art supplies became available along the way and the safety situation improved, the art develops too, gains colour and space, and toward the end of the book we find a number of wonderful aquarel and oil paintings, including some by Colonel Lorne.

  
In conclusion, _ATLANTIS_ is an extraordinary thorough, loving look at the Atlantis Expedition, from its perilious start to the thriving city it has become. All we can say is.. do they sell condos on Atlantis yet? We want in on the waiting list.


	6. ON GATE TRAVEL - Dr M.R. KcKay PhD PhD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was idly rereading these books and remembered that I have had this last one sitting almost ready for ages now!

_On Gate Travel_ was the first book to be published after declassification; it was on the shelves mere weeks after the initial press conference. The speed at which this 623 page book appeared indicated most of it was already written even before the declassification was announced to Expedition Personnel. The evolving opinions on fellow members of the Stargate Program (he goes from barely hidden contempt to a sort of competitive admiration about Dr Colonel Carter) suggests that Dr McKay may well have started this book when he was first brought into the Stargate Program.

This gives the reader some fascinating perspective on events how they were at the time, not how they are viewed in hindsight. Sadly, the points where the writer went back to add in present day opinions are poorly framed and end up mostly confusing.

After having seen several of his TV appearances, we were not wholly surprised to find that _On Gate Travel_ , like its author, struggles to connect with its audience. Or rather, this book would have been better served to reach the market in two volumes.

A 623-page monster, _On Gate Travel_ is, to put it mildly, hard work. Between pages and pages of calculations and technical details - inaccessible for anybody who doesn't have at least a masters in theoretical physics - are sprinkled mentions of the Stargate Program, life in Atlantis, his team, and the Pegasus galaxy. It almost feels like mining; plow through pages of incomprehensible explanation in the hope of catching a glimpse of Atlantis Command from the eyes on an insider.

A good editor involved earlier in the writing process – or perhaps less hurry to be the first published book after declassification - could have helped Dr McKay split _On Gate Travel_ into two books, being a volume for the academic market in which he details his extensive knowledge about wormholes and gate travel, and a much shorter separate book with personal insights and anecdotes about life in Atlantis.

Even with that split, the second book would have betrayed Mckay's narrow focus. We get glimpses of personal insight into the missions of Atlantis Recon 1, but if you read this book first, you could be forgiven for believing that there were only ever a handful of people on Atlantis aside from McKay and his team. The only conclusive proof we have that he was on the same expedition as the writers of the rest of the books on this list, is that he and his team are mentioned in Brittner's _S.R.E_ a number of times.

A mixed recommendation for this book, then. For those readers with any interest in the technical side of gate travel this book is unparalleled. For those looking for insight into Dr McKay himself, as the cover image suggests, there could be no better choice than 623 pages penned by the man himself. For those looking for insights into the Atlantis expedition this book might not be worth it, since it has little news to offer after the previous books on the list.

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me on tumblr! I'm [here](http://primarybufferpanel.tumblr.com/)


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